The Internet is becoming an advertisement media to reach globally populated web users. Advertisements can be included in a web page that is frequently visited by web users or that returns the result of a user requested search.
Typically, the advertisements included in the web pages contain only a limited amount of information (e.g., a small paragraph, an icon, etc.). The advertisements contain links to web sites that provide further detailed information.
In certain arrangements, the advertisers pay the advertisements based on the number of visits directed to the web sites through the links in the advertisements. Thus, the advertisers pay for the performance of the advertisements.
Performance based advertising generally refers to a type of advertising in which an advertiser pays only for a measurable event that is a direct result of an advertisement being viewed by a consumer.
Paid inclusion advertising is a form of performance-based search advertising. With paid inclusion advertising, an advertisement is included within a result page of a search. Typically, each selection (e.g., click) of the advertisement from the result page is the measurable event for which the advertiser pays. In other words, payment by the advertiser is typically on a per click basis.
Paid placement advertising is another form of performance-based advertising, similar to paid inclusion advertising. Typically, the payment for paid placement advertising is also on a per click basis. With paid placement advertising an advertiser wants the opportunity of having a particular advertisement placed at a prominent spot, e.g., at the top of a search engine result page, thereby to increase the odds of the advertisement being viewed.
In paid inclusion advertising or paid placement advertising, the advertiser may adjust the price the advertiser is willing to pay for each selection (e.g., click) to balance the cost for the advertisement and the odds of obtaining the desired prominent spot or a high position in a list of advertisements.
For example, one advertising site may create a single queue of advertisements, which is sorted based on the per-click price specified by the advertisers. Adjusting the prices allows the advertisers to change their own placement and the advertisement cost.
Currently, a search engine web site can present a list of advertisers/advertisements in response to a user request for certain information. The list of advertisers/advertisements may be sorted or selected for presentation partially according to the relevancy of the advertisements to the information requested by the user. The advertisers/advertisements may be sorted or selected for presentation partially according to the price the advertisers specified for payment of the performance of the advertisements.
In an existing advertising network, a web site may sort the pool of advertisements into two separate queues. One queue is for the direct advertisers of the web site; and the other is for the indirect advertisers of the web site. The entire queue of the direct advertisers is sorted ahead of the indirect advertisers so that the direct advertisers are better served than the indirect advertisers on the web site.